ICLM Journal Club
This Week - 12 May 2017 (9:30 a.m., Gonda 2nd Floor Conference Room)
Speaker: Tom O'Dell
Title: Gone in 60 seconds: The role of CamKII in LTP and learning
Chang et al. (2017) CaMKII autophosphorylation is necessary for optimal integration of Ca2+ signals during LTP induction, but not maintenance. Neuron http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627317303987
Murakoshi et al. (2017) Kinetics of endogenous CaMKII required for synaptic plasticity revealed by optogenetic kinase inhibitor. Neuron http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627317303537
The calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase CamKII has long been known to have a crucial role in both LTP and learning. An intriguing property of CamKII is that it undergoes auto-phosphorylation at a site (Thr286) that converts CamKII into a persistently active form. Although the ability of auto-phosphorylated CamKII to remain active even in the absence of calcium/calmodulin has long been thought to have an important role in the long-term maintenance of LTP and memory, results from experimental tests of this idea have been mixed. Recently, Ryohei Yasuda’s laboratory has re-examined the role of CamKII in LTP and learning using a FRET-based reporter of CamKII activity and a novel, photoactivatable CamKII inhibitor. Their results indicate that the temporal requirement for CamKII activity in plasticity and learning is surprisingly short (1 minute or less) and thus constitutively active, auto-phosphorylated forms of CamKII do not directly contribute to the long-term maintenance of LTP and memory.
About Us
Introduction
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory (ICLM) is a multidisciplinary center of UCLA labs devoted to understanding the neural basis of learning and memory and its disorders. This will require a unified approach across different levels of analysis, including;
1. Elucidating the molecular cellular and systems mechanisms that allow neurons and synapses to undergo the long-term changes that ultimately correspond to 'neural memories'.
2. Understanding how functional dynamics and computations emerge from complex circuits of neurons, and how plasticity governs these processes.
3. Describing the neural systems in which different forms of learning and memory take place, and how these systems interact to ultimately generate behavior and cognition.
History of ICLM
The Integrative Center for Learning and Memory formally LMP started in its current form in 1998, and has served as a platform for many interactions and collaborations within UCLA. A key event organized by the group is the weekly ICLM Journal Club. For more than 10 years, graduate students, postdocs, principal investigators, and invited speakers have presented on topics ranging from the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, through computational models of learning, to behavior and cognition. Dean Buonomano oversees the ICLM journal club with help of student/post doctoral organizers. For other events organized by ICLM go to http://www.iclm.ucla.edu/Events.html.
Current Organizers:
Walt Babiec (O'Dell Lab) & Helen Motanis (Buonomano Lab)
Current Faculty Advisor:
Past Organizers:
i) Anna Matynia(Aug 2004 - Jun 2008) (Silva Lab)
ii) Robert Brown (Aug 2008 - Jun 2009) (Balleine Lab)
iii) Balaji Jayaprakash (Aug 2008 - Nov 2011) (Silva Lab)
iv) Justin Shobe & Thomas Rogerson (Dec 2011 - June 2013) (Silva Lab)
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